Arab Jewelry and ornaments
Regional, Culture, 6/3/1998

The everlasting and present desire of ladies to decorate themselves does not end with the toiletries, rather they serve as a beginning for greater achievements through personal ornaments and jewelry. The ancient Arab women of past eras were no exception to this general rule. Arab treasures include wonderful collections of jewelry preserved in museums scattered throughout the Arab states.

The story of these ornaments begins with man's moral and aesthetic activities. Arab craftsmen acquired proficiency in the jeweler's art and excelled especially in creating granular and filigree designs. However, the plastic treatment of form was not so important to them. A claw or tooth amulet is an excellent example of their workmanship. The core of this amulet is of lead covered, except at point, with a thin sheath of gold. On the front side, the gold is decorated with a granulated design of small hexagons enclosed in beaded borders. The tooth or claw is pierced transversely by three holes for suspension. This type of ornament was fashionable in the Arab East states.

Among the other types of jewelry are earrings of various shapes, girls' necklaces, breast chains and belts, amulets and pendants, bangles and bracelets, and anklets and finger rings.

Later Arab specimens show a marked Greco-Roman influence. A gold necklace, an ear pendant type and a finger ring are outstanding examples. The pendants are of two alternating patterns. One pendant consists of a small circlet of gold centered, alternately with a rock crystal and edged round with a double granulated enclosing a triple cluster of granules and above it a spherical bead covered with granulation and pierced laterally for a string. The other pattern is made up of six cloisonne with small spacing beads on the upper string.

The necklace was strung on two strings, one passing through the beads at the top of the pendants, and the other through a series of small horizontal tubes soldered on to their backs. At the back of the terminal are two tubes to take the strings.

The ear pendant consists of a plain leech crescent with clasp and a "bud" pendant suspended from it by a movable ring. The leech is of a thin gold-plate, shaped on a core of pitch. The clasp, attached by means of ring hinge, is of a "double leech" pattern ornamented at the center with a female bust superimposed on a lotus rosette, at the top of which is a lotus with a beaded circlet.

The pendant ring is decorated on the outside with three rows of beads and granules, and there are four small stars, besides the granulation, on the shoulder of the buds. The points of the bud end in clusters of drops and granules. At the top of the leech-crescent is a small ring by which the ornament was suspended from the ear. The finger ring is highly elaborate. The hoop is composed of an open-work vine scroll between fine reel borders. In the scroll are trefoil cloisonne, once enriched with stones or paste.

The bezel which is pyramidal in shape comprises three oval box-settings diminishing in size towards the top, and nine smaller cloisonne, some heart-shaped, others leaf-shaped or circular. Such unmatched jewelry can be still seen in the Damascus National Museum, bespeaking of rich artistic legacy of our Arab ancestors.

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